It was yet another shooting atrocity in the United States which evoked condemnation and revulsion.

People were hurt, someone even died as chaos and fear gripped another American city.

After winning back-to-back Super Bowls, the Kansas City Chiefs had a lot to celebrate and their faithful supporters would turn up in droves for the parade and watch their heroes show off the Lombardi Trophy.

It should have been a great day for the fans,the team the city.

Instead it was a horror story, America’s 48th mass shooting this year and we are only in the middle of February.

Violence and mass shooting are now endemic to American life. Politicians seem unable and unwilling to address this. No one seems able to put in place adequate gun control measures to abate these shootings.

America has a big problem.

Mass shootings of this nature do not take place in Jamaica. No one randomly sprays bullets from high velocity guns mowing down innocent people.

Yes there is gang violence, certainly criminality but shooting tourists regularly?

Not at all. That is not the Jamaican way.

This winter season, Jamaica was expected to attract millions of tourists mainly from North America. The tourism sector has recovered well from the COVID pandemic and is a main engine of the Jamaican economy, bringing in much needed foreign exchange.

That was seriously jeopordised when on the 23 of January this year, three weeks before the Kansas shooting, the US State Department issued an updated Level 3 designation recommending US citizens to “ Reconsider Travel” to Jamaica.

The advisory reads: “Violent crimes such as home invasions, armed robberies, sexual assaults and homicide are common. Local police often do not respond effectively to serious criminal incidents and response times and quality of care may vary from US standards as public hospitals are under-resourced, private hospitals require payment upfront before admitting patients and ambulance services are not always readily available and staffed by trained personnel.”

This is grim and paints a damning picture of Jamaica. It might of well have said that Jamaica is a murderous banana republic, and Americans are taking a chance with their lives vacationing there.

Jamaican entreaties to American officials have been met with deaf ears. Ed Bartlett and his team have gone above and beyond to dispel this and continually point to the fact that tourists are not harmed in Jamaica.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness has tirelessly insisted that illegal guns coming into Jamaica from the United States must be stopped and that the country needs help from its main trading partner in the north.

Both Ambassador Audrey Marks based in Washington and Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Kamina Johnson-Smith have lobbied to address this damaging advisory but are given short shrift.

Yet mass shooting are a permanent fixture in the United States but Jamaica does not have the temerity or is too fearful to point this out.

It does smack of blatant hypocracy.

Making matters worse, is an innocuous US Ambassador who is winding down the clock to his pension. It’s hard to believe this guy is Jamaican! His approach seems to be “ I don’t want any of this and I am happy to enjoy the sunshine and jerk chicken. Hey, Jamaican parties are great!’

If anyone one can make Jamaica’s case in the United States, it is him but the guy diplomatically that is, can’t get it together.

His predecessor Ambassador Tapa was more forthright and definitive in his approach to Jamaica. One knew where you stood with him.

By comparison his successor is sleepy and his inertia is infuriating. Perhaps he needs a couple of Rum and Tings to get him going!

While he remains somnambulant, Jamaica suffers. The Government doesn’t want to incur the wrath of the mighty United States and has to delicately dance around this with smiles and polite language – while Uncle Sam puts his heavy boot on our scrawny neck as we grasp for breath.

There are mitigating circumstances that the US just doesn’t want to consider.

So far this year, serious crime is down in Jamaica.Jamaica is one of the top tourism destinations of the Caribbean and has never had a history of high numbers of violent crime against and killing of tourists. Jamaicans are most hospitable to tourists and that has been so for decades. Perry can tell them that-he knows all too well.

Tourism is the lynchpin of the economy and is a growth industry. To stymie that by telling visitors not to come to Jamaica in effect makes Jamaica poorer and threatens its ability to prosper.

Jamaica is not an industrial-based economy, it has to play the cards it is given and make the most of its advantages.

There is less chance of your children and family members walking into a supermarket or church and getting shot to death in Jamaica than there is in America. Life in America is very tenuous these days.

Over the holiday on Wednesday, I went to a beautiful beach in St Ann, near Drax Hall (The Cove) with my family. There were people of different races, nationalities, all ages enjoying the beauty of the place and azure water. The sky was perfect and the temperature just right. I thought this world could be a beautiful place and Jamaica is truly lovely.

Everyone was pleasant and amenable.

As I watched my kids playing in the sand and I sipped on a Red Stripe, I said this is living, what a nice spot.Looking around, it was really, “ Out of many, one people.”

Then the news went around the Cove; there was a mass shooting at the Kanas City Chiefs’ Parade.

“ Plenty man shot, Dada”, I was dolefully informed.

“ Not again!,” said an elegant American lady with an aquiline nose wearing a rather fetching purple bikini.